Tone Games 2010: 30 Stompboxes Reviewed

It’s a beautiful time to be a pedal nerd. Between the stompbox builders
out to unearth and resurrect the most obscure vintage circuits and mad
scientists bent on exploring the outer limits of guitar–driven sound, we’ve
never had more options for warping, warming, phasing, fuzzing-up, and
freaking out what we play.

It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to replicate Pete Townshend’s tone at
3:58 on the Live at Leeds version of “Heaven and Hell,” capture the never-before-heard sound of piercing the Horsehead Nebula at the speed of
light, or just put some bite in your blues bends, there’s probably a pedal
builder that can get you there. And it’s our good fortune to profile 30 of
their most inspired creations in these pages.

A full spectrum of manufacturers is here too. Familiar names like Electro-Harmonix, Boss, and MXR are represented with new innovations and reissues
of classics. Creepy Fingers, Stomp Under Foot, and Analog Man give
us faithful interpretations of rare, pricey, and impossible-to-find vintage
units, while builders like Snazzy and Strymon are setting new standards for
how much sonic mayhem you can unleash with a single pedal.

Indeed, at this arcade of tone-shaping marvels, new and exciting possibilities
are raining down like tetrominoes in Level 12 of Tetris. Though
this stompbox deluge can seem overwhelming at times, it means there’s
something to satisfy every player regardless of skill or experience—and
that’s great. We dare you to go away without dropping a token in the slot.

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